Funded Investigators
 |
| Warren Pear, M.D., Ph.D. |
| University of Pennsylvania |
Tribbles in Cancer
Current chemotherapy fails to cure acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. A subset of these patients who have a specific tumor marker have responded to a targeted therapy that reprograms the cancer cells, giving 80 percent of these patients a 10-year survival rate. But for patients without this specific marker, there aren't many options.
Dr. Pear and his colleagues have identified two oncogenes, TRIB1 and TRIB2, which contribute to the development of AML. They want to develop effective therapies that target these two genes. Since TRIB1 and TRIB2 show up in other tumor types, they hope blocking these oncogenes will lead to future implications in other cancers as well.
The Pear laboratory has identified TRIB1 and TRIB2 as abnormally functioning genes that contribute to the development of AML by blocking white blood cell differentiation. Scientists will further study how TRIB1 causes AML and the design of inhibitors as a possible new therapy. The potential as a new differentiation therapy in AML is an exciting prospect. Since TRIB1 and TRIB2 are potentially cancer-causing in other tumor types, these studies may have significant therapeutic implications for many forms of cancer. This fits well with the SWCRF mission of collaborative research and developing ways to reprogram cancer cells.
